 |
| Jack Warner visits affected areas on Christmas Eve |
Warner's touring party includes the MP for the area, Clifton DeCouteau, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal, Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George and WASA CEO Ganga Singh.
On Christmas Eve DeCouteau invited the Works and Transport Minister to visit the area to see the sad state of affairs where poor road and drainage has caused at least four homes to collapse. Several more at at risk.
Many of the more than 115 affected residents were in tears as they pleaded with the minister to help them.
They complained about poor drainage, leaking WASA pipelines and shoddy work by contractors.
Warner met at a local school in the community of Lengua with DeCouteau and members of the Realise/Madingo Road Community Council. The council complained that the new government has not served them as expected.
The minister dismissed suggestions that Local Government authorities were to blame. He stated that with the best intentions Local Government could not deal with the matter because they do not have the expertise, equipment and funding to deal with infrastructural problems.
He focused on shoddy work by contractors, which he noted contributed to landslip issues in some cases. He asked residents to inform the authorities when contractors are doing poor work.
Warner said, "Anybody who does shoddy work will not be paid. And those contractors who are bad we must blacklist them and those who are good we must praise them and that will happen in 2012.”
He added, “I have seen homes that have collapsed; not one, not two, but several. I have seen big landslips in the area.”
Warner promised to make arrangements to relocate the people whose homes have collapsed.
The minister said part of the problem is caused by the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
He added: “WASA lines leak and undermine the roads and before they pave the road the leaks shall be fixed.
“I have asked the people to be our eyes and ears and that anybody who does shoddy work will not be paid unless they do it over,” Warner said.
De Coteau has pointed out that there are over 250 landslips in the Moruga and Tableland area.
Warner has again reiterated the need for a separate roads authority.
"There are roads here that they tell me belong to local government, for me that is nonsense and that is why I went to Cabinet with a Roads Authority note hoping that Cabinet would approve it quickly so that all the roads would come under the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure,” he said.
“There are roads here where Local Government, with the best will in the World, they can’t fix, they don’t have the money, how could they fix these landslips with $9 million when to fix one alone might cost $18 million, so you can’t fix them if you don’t have the money, they have the equipment, they don’t have the expertise, and therefore we are blaming them wrongfully,” he added.
De Coteau has pointed out that there are over 250 landslips in the Moruga and Tableland area.
Warner has again reiterated the need for a separate roads authority.
"There are roads here that they tell me belong to local government, for me that is nonsense and that is why I went to Cabinet with a Roads Authority note hoping that Cabinet would approve it quickly so that all the roads would come under the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure,” he said.
“There are roads here where Local Government, with the best will in the World, they can’t fix, they don’t have the money, how could they fix these landslips with $9 million when to fix one alone might cost $18 million, so you can’t fix them if you don’t have the money, they have the equipment, they don’t have the expertise, and therefore we are blaming them wrongfully,” he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment